Indefatigable Radcliffe steps out on her impossible Olympic dream

Through Beijing's cooling rain it's sometimes possible to imagine Paula Radcliffe slogging home in a medal position in this weekend's Olympic marathon, but the stronger vision is of a movie that could be titled Tears on the Pavement II.

No British quest for shiny metal can match Radcliffe's pursuit of Olympic recognition.

As athletics storms the big stage, Radcliffe is suspended somewhere between heroism and folly. In May, when she was diagnosed with a stress fracture of her left femur, doctors told her a 12-year Olympic dream had become 'impossible'.

And yet here she is again at 34: a metronomic embodiment of Pierre De Coubertin's mantra about the value of 'taking part'.

She's no quitter: Paula in early morning training, running round a golf course

Britain has already endured two preparation cock-ups at these Games. First, the country's first world amateur champion, Frankie Gavin, failed to make his weight and bombed before gloves could be laced.

Then Andy Murray confessed to an 'unprofessional' approach as he crashed out in the doubles. Best boxer, best tennis player: both in the stocks. Now it's our finest long- distance runner's turn to persuade the world that a rushed training programme of indoor cardiovascular work-outs is more than an epic statement of denial.

Radcliffe's mission is right up there with Colin Montgomerie chasing a major golf title, Tim Henman trying to win Wimbledon and England hunting a trophy to place on the peeling mantlepiece of 1966.

She finished fifth in the 5,000m in Atlanta in 1996, fourth in the Sydney 10,000m and on the pavement in the marathon in Athens, where she then defied logic by lining up for the 10,000m. Result: another DNF, laden with pathos.

A start line in Tiananmen Square will offer a suitably melodramatic backdrop for the 34-year-old Radcliffe's fourth attempt to add an Olympic medal to her triumphs in the London and New York marathons and the 10,000m at a World Championships.

Her last stage-set was the original ancient Greek marathon course, so no-one could accuse her of lacking a sense of Hollywood.

In a depleted gang of British medal candidates (Phillips Idowu, Christine Ohuruogu, Nicola Sanders and Kelly Sotherton were the pre-Games picks of an undistinguished bunch), Radcliffe's will be the face most British TV viewers tune into, even if her race starts at 12.30am on Sunday, London time.

Recent experience has taught us to mistrust the artificially accelerated preparation. Think Wayne Rooney or David Beckham at football tournaments.

Radcliffe's gym fitness is not in doubt. From water aerobics she progressed to a £30,000 anti-gravity treadmill, or G-machine, that she set up in her daughter's bedroom. These were the emergency measures she was obliged to fall back on to compensate her for the loss of 140 miles per week.

The Athens breakdown was finally ascribed to anti-inflammatories that upset her stomach and drained her energy. The stress fracture was designed by some malign force to spoil one of the great Olympic redemption songs.

As Team GB's track and field team disrobe, she is at least guaranteed to shed the quitter's label that was nailed to her in Athens. Her breakdown on the streets of the Greek capital aroused complicated responses. Radcliffe has always straddled the divide between Engish-heroine-with-inner-glow and inscrutable businesswoman and machine.

In our world of sprawling contracts, it is legitimate to ask how much a desire to fulfil obligations to sponsors prompted her to disregard one of the clearest words in the English language. From 'impossible' to 'confirmed runner' is a leap none of her medical specialists appeared willing to make.

So it's sensible to decide right now what would be an acceptable final chapter to all her Olympic striving. Victory would see 10,000 media thesauruses shredded in the search for superlatives.

Another micro-drama of sobbing on some Beijing pavement would prompt many to say she had succumbed to a kind of mania for Olympic glory. The alternative, though, would have been not to try, not to spend 30-grand on a treadmill, not to wring the last molecule of juice from life's big chance.

To exemplify the Olympic spirit now, all she has to do is finish the race. Sometimes perseverance scores higher than medals.